Dodgeball team aims to beat Guinness World Record during 43-hour game Friday

By Paul Post

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

There's nothing like a good thwack, whack or making your opponent groan after you catch the rifle-hard dodgeball they've just thrown.

It's all part of the game, and Ballston Spa, N.Y., teacher Rob Immel and his fellow dodgeball enthusiasts this weekend will try to set a new Guinness World Record for the longest contest ever played.

A group of 20 players, including one from Tokyo, plans to start at 7 p.m. Friday and will play for at least 43 hours until late Sunday afternoon.

"People are encouraged to come and slap us in the face to help keep us awake," Immel said. "We're going to be playing competitively the whole time."

He was part of a group that set a previous world record of 31 hours three years ago at Washington Avenue Armory in Albany, only to have it eclipsed by students from Castleton State College in Vermont.

Now, he's out to get it back.

Immel, a physical education teacher, is captain of a team called Upstate Empire that includes Brannigan Bryant of Wilton, N.Y., a Ballston Spa first-grade teacher. He's even invited a high-caliber player from Japan, where dodgeball is highly popular.

They'll be competing against a squad comprised of players from New York and the Capital Region.

The event, in addition to being a fun athletic challenge, is also a fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Project that benefits injured veterans.

Immel, 31, a Galway native, said he caught the dodgeball bug while going to school at SUNY Cortland.

"Sometimes we'd sneak into the gym and play 'outlaw' dodgeball," he said. "Other times, we'd drop the nets and play outdoors on tennis courts. In winter, we'd spread salt at 7 a.m. and be able to play by 10."

The game involves many of the same skills found in major sports such as baseball and football.

"It combines the quickness needed to steal a base and the power for hitting home runs with the agility of a running back," Immel said. "Unlike baseball, you don't just throw the ball. You've got to move out of the way, too."

Teams have 10 players each, but games start with 12 players -- six on six -- and six balls. Players are eliminated when an opponent hits them with a ball, or if an opponent catches a ball they've thrown.

"We could play up to 1,000 games in the 43 hours," Immel said.

Athletes may eat and drink when they aren't playing, but must stay courtside for the entire marathon to be eligible for setting a new record.

Immel founded Hometown Dodgeball in 2005, and his team has gone to the world championships, held each summer in Las Vegas. So far, their best finish has been fourth place.

He's also captain of a professional team, New York Epic in the National Dodgeball League, and of Team USA, which has competed against teams from the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

He'd like nothing more than for dodgeball to become an Olympic sport. Realistically, he doesn't think it will happen.

"In my dreams," Immel said. "There's just so much involved."

For now, he's determined to get back in the record books, even if it means doing without a little sleep. Immel said he's done a great deal of endurance work to get ready for this weekend's event.

"The best training you can do for dodgeball is play dodgeball," Immel said.